OpenSim simulations yield insights into the design of assistive devices to reduce the metabolic cost of running

By Blanca Pineda

Mobilize Center researcher Thomas Uchida and OpenSim (http://opensim.stanford.edu) researchers published a paper in PLOS One where they generated muscle-driven simulations of movement to augment experimental data and provide insights into the design of assistive devices to reduce energy consumption during running.

Using the open-source OpenSim software platform, they simulated 10 human subjects running at 2 and 5 m/s to examine the predicted changes in muscle recruitment patterns and metabolic power consumption with assistive devices.

Results from the simulations yielded observations that can be used to form hypotheses for future experimental studies.

SimTK is maintained through Grant R01GM124443 01A1 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It was initially developed as part of the Simbios project funded by the NIH as part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, Grant U54 GM072970.